Using popular culture to make sense of the 2011 antiauthoritarian popular revolts in the MENA region: Theory and practice of the use of graphic novels and comics in classrooms

Graphic novels: main advantages (… and a postcolonial approach) [Up]

As pointed out by Gibert (2015), the international relations and politics academia is increasingly aware of the relevance of popular culture to understand, explain and teach wider political phenomena. Popular culture can not only be used to observe, describe and analyse the “world-out-there”, but it can also be seen as “a cultural narrative of the self” (‍Engert and Spencer, 2009). Fiction and nonfiction materials help us “to get a sense of the everyday connections between the popular and the political” and allow us to see “how IR myths become everyday myths —because they are circulated, received, and criticized in and through everyday popular forms” (‍Weber, 2005: 9).

As stated by some authors, graphic novels —like other popular cultural materials— are an easy and entertaining way to approach complex ideas, debates, and issues. As noted by Gibert (‍2016: 499), the “approachable and familiar dimension of popular culture and the opportunity it gives us to break away with the usual lecture and seminar discussions of academic readings’ model” can be “very helpful”. By creating an emotional link with the topic, students are more likely to better understand actors’ rationales and motivations. In addition, it has been shown that the rational and emotional “halves of the brain” become involved in the learning process, which in turn makes “learning easier” (‍Engert and Spencer, 2009: 99). By connecting the “object of study” (the topic), the space where it is debated (the classroom) and the “subjects who study” (the students), graphic novel language makes it easier to understand IR concepts, actors and processes (‍Correa da Silva y Tomé-Alonso, 2021).

Another advantage of using graphic novels is that this material has the capacity to bring regional actors’ personal experiences into the classroom. In Juneau and Sucharov’s (‍2010) article, they reflect on the fact that “a narrative approach —meaning one that focuses on the experience of political actors in understanding and framing their actions— helps unpack the sometimes-elusive concept of identity” (ibid.: 173). By highlighting actors’ experiences from a subjective and personal perspective, graphic novels focus on micropolitics rather than on intergovernmental relations and macropolitics. They open therefore a window to understand others’ experiences and motivations, which in turn reminds students that they might experience similar life experiences. As stated by Stover, this can lead to a “greater sense of empathy with people far beyond the borders of a nation state” (‍2005: 208).

Finally, graphic novels can be considered “cultural artifacts” (‍Algeo, 2007: 133) that deserve greater reflection. By encouraging critical thinking about the importance of representation, the relation between representation and knowledge, and the politics of identity to understand global affairs (‍Campbell, 2013: 225), students are called on to seek out the underlying power and its real-life consequences (‍Tomé-Alonso y Ferreiro Prado, 2020). By presenting a personal narrative about often well-known events, graphic novels allow us to question what has been presented as the “absolute truth”. As stated by Juneau and Sucharov, “working with the assumption that each collective actor under analysis has a certain version of events —stories that that group tells about itself and about the other— reminds students they too might enter the classroom with particular frames, biases, or assumptions, and that it is legitimate to acknowledge subjectivity […]” (‍2010: 173).

The emphasis on the narrative is congruent with a postcolonial teaching approach. Postcolonialism rejects the idea of neutrality. Rather, knowledge “is always situated and, therefore, political” (‍Díaz Sanz and Ferreiro Prado, 2021: 3) and “can never be formulated outside the influence of social and political context” (‍Kurki and Wight, 2013: 30). This perspective highlights the relation between knowledge and power. As stated by Grovogui, mainstream narratives often claim “universal ‘truths’ about themselves and native peoples” which are “neither constitutively native knowledge nor based on native concerns” (‍2013: 250). Rather, the “facts” and “events” presented by institutional media and social scientists “reflect their own ‘castes of mind’” (Dirks, 2011, cited by ‍Grovogui, 2013: 250). Said put forward this idea in his seminal work Orientalism: as a “style of thought based upon an ontological and epistemological distinction made between “the Orient” and “the Occident” which has to be understood as “a Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient” (‍1978: 2-‍3). Orientalism assumes “an unchanging Orient, absolutely different from the West” and describes “Oriental’ ideas (Oriental despotism, Oriental splendor, cruelty, sensuality)” (ibid.: 96).

One of the main arguments of postcolonialism is “its challenge to establish modes of thinking” (‍Darby and Paolini, 1994: 373). From this critical approach, mainstream narratives, and their ways of homogenizing and essentializing, can be interrogated and different (and preferably endogenous) discourses and experiences can be included. Thus, postcolonialism allows to bring to the surface “the racialized, gendered, and class processes that underwrite global hierarchies” (‍Chowdhry and Nair, 2002: 1). From the postcolonial perspective, therefore, and effort is made to “to participate in the creation of ‘truths’, based on distinct modes of signification and forms of knowledge (or the manners of representations) that advance justice, peace, and political pluralism” (‍Grovogui, 2013: 248).

Popular cultural materials and innovative practices [Up]

Popular culture materials are integrated into the classroom to conduct active learning activities. As pointed out by some authors, active learning “promotes greater student learning than reading and lecture alone” (‍McCarthy, 2014: 401). While “standard classroom lectures may not capture the imagination of students new to the subject of international relations”, role-playing simulations and the use of Twitter or popular culture material tend to more highly engage students (‍Newmann and Twigg, 2000: 835).

Among active learning activities, collaborative learning implies that “students interact and collaborate to construct their own knowledge […] while the professor has a less active role than in his or her conventional status” (Wolfe, 2012, quoted by ‍Martínez‑Cousinou et al., 2021). In addition to being an interactive and creative method, “collaborative work offers students opportunities to take clearer charge of their projects as coproducers of knowledge” (‍Burcu, 2019: 143). “Working in groups to construct common knowledge requires each of the members in a group to perform successfully to achieve the required objectives that are expected from them, as the output of each participant’s effort is an essential piece of the ‘puzzle’ that they seek to solve together” (‍Suárez-Collado and Sierra, 2021). This is why collaborative learning is stated to “improve the educational experience not only by fostering knowledge acquisition, but also because it helps students develop key supplementary such as interpersonal skills, team management, research and inquiry, conflict resolution, and communication and presentation skills” (Eshuis et al., 2019, quoted in Suárez-Collado and Sierra, 2021: 5).

The combined use of comics/graphic novels and the collaborative learning method makes sense in the context of the postpositivist turn in political science and international relations. This postpositivist turn “has led educators to advocate for the value of allowing students to find their own truths through a rigorously developed analytic framework that gives them the tools to evaluate both, evidences received in the course and the impact of their own biases in how they process it” (‍Malet, 2015: 247). Drawing on analytical tools and theoretical reflections presented during lectures, the students can use the comic to construct their knowledge. In this way, they can “move from a theoretical and narrative discussion to a more specific empirical arena” (‍Tomé-Alonso and Ferreiro Prado, 2020), analyze a cultural product and reflect on narratives.

Learning objectives [Up]

As stated by Ferreiro Prado (‍2020), active learning activities need to be carefully planned to be effective. What are the learning objectives we plan to meet? How can these learning objectives be explained? Are all these learning objectives equally relevant?

The first aim is that students learn about the North African (sub)region (since they are enrolled in an African politics course) and specifically about the antiauthoritarian popular protests that took place in 2011 (often known as the Arab Spring) as well as the main factors that caused them. Beyond this objective, referred to as the factual dimension (acquisition of basic knowledge), this session aims to enable students to “make sense” of the knowledge they are acquiring and to establish relations between basic elements (conceptual dimension of knowledge). According to Kratwohl, knowledge can be classified into different types, two of which are factual knowledge and conceptual knowledge (Kratwohl, 2002: 201-‍216, cited in ‍Ferreiro Prado, 2020: 21). While factual knowledge “refers to the terminologies, specific details, and basic elements within any domain”, conceptual knowledge “includes (1) knowing information classification and categorization, (2) knowing principles and generalizations, and (3) knowing theories, models, and structures” (‍Tapia, 2018). We want students to know what happened in 2011 and afterwards but also to be able to establish connections between, for example, the presence of different cleavages within MENA societies.

In addition to these two main objectives, the planned activity is a great opportunity to encourage students to reflect about their own learning process. We intend to deconstruct the stereotyped visions of the region. While recent academic literature tends to highlight the role that political, social and economic factors play in the region and its development, students are still prone to use simplistic explanations when referring to MENA affairs. In this sense, our objective is to replace culturalist arguments (which emphasize the role of culture and religion when making sense of complex phenomena) with theoretically informed ones (which are widely used to explain similar phenomena in different regional contexts). This is why we use the social movement theory toolbox to explain protest dynamics in 2011.

Finally, our objective is to engage students with the region. Religion and cultural MENA particularities are often presented as foreign to Western societies. By avoiding these culturalist explanations, we intend to create a greater connection with the region among students. As pointed out by Juneau and Sucharov, “focusing on narratives can help students to set aside questions of right and wrong —debates that can easily create a brittle classroom atmosphere— and instead focus on the explanatory questions essential to understanding how world politics unfold” (‍2010: 173). By emphasizing the construction of the knowledge based on images and theoretical explanations, we want to overcome monolithic, essentialist and moral explanations and to focus on political processes. As explained by Mills, “these processes come to have power through their spatiality, through the ways in which identities become territorialized, in the linking between state power, boundaries, and ethnically grounded definitions of nations, or through the ways in which local citizens interact in daily life” (‍2012: 783).

Case selection and method [Up]

The 3-hour activity is part of an educational innovation project entitled “Using graphic novels in the classroom”, which was implemented among students of the Bachelor of International Relations program at University Loyola during the first semester of the 2021-‍2022 academic year. The participants were students enrolled in the third-year African politics course. Although 17 students were initially enrolled in the course, 14 were present in the classroom the day the activity took place. While presenting a single case experience may be restrictive to generalize conclusions, it nonetheless allows us to identify some trends.

At this point, it is useful to note that the students were not familiar with critical international relations approaches or with regional issues. This was for the majority not only their first academic contact with postcolonial arguments and with MENA questions but also the first time they used graphic material in the classroom. They were, however, used to participating in active learning activities, such as role-play simulations. The novelty of the activity has at least two main advantages. It allowed the students to break from their daily routine. Also, since it was the first time they learned about the region, it allowed us to better assess the impact of the activity.

To evaluate the activity, the students were asked to answer a pre-activity questionnaire and a post-activity questionnaire. After the activity, a debriefing session took place so they could expose their impressions and opinions about how it was, its main advantages and what to change or improve in the future. The fact that the group was relatively small allowed for a more in-depth discussion.

The activity [Up]

When designing the activity, there are some questions that need to be addressed: How can popular cultural material be integrated? When should it be integrated? How many comics or graphic novel sketches should be included? How can we link theoretical explanation, collaborative learning and the use of comics in a unique activity?

As stated, the first step was to choose how to integrate the material in the classroom. There were two possibilities. The first was to introduce the students directly to the proposed material. The idea is to allow students to put together their own analysis and to share their conclusions in the classroom (‍Gibert, 2016). This can be defined as a type of inductive collaborative learning activity. The second possibility was to read and discuss the graphic novel or comic material after the lecture. This can be a sort of deductive collaborative activity. We opted for this second option for two main reasons. First, we have the conviction that active learning activities are more useful when combined with lectures. Second, since it was the first time students were invited to read graphic novels in the classroom, we thought they might need some training and tutoring during the process. As stated by Grayson et al., “as lectures it is important to provide students with skills that help them to see —as well as read— politics, so that they can appreciate the visual text and will possess the tools for considered analysis of it” (‍2009: 160). Thus, after attending the theoretical explanation in the classroom, the students were asked to form small groups (of 3 or 4 people), to read the proposed comic together and to reflect on the following aspects:

What are the elements that attract their attention? Why? During the collaborative activity, the students can share their ideas, illustrated by examples from the comic to explain theoretical concepts and reflect on the narrative style. After their group reading, the students were asked to share (and explain) their conclusions in front of the others while the comic sketches are being projected in the classroom. Since the group was relatively small (14 students), we reread the comic together and used the opportunity to draw consensual conclusions. Our role during the activity was mainly to encourage students’ participation and to call their attention to some issues mainly related to the comic itself (for example, how are the faces and their expressions drawn?).

The second decision was to choose the graphic novel or comic material. We opted to introduce Tok Tok into the classroom. Tok Tok is an Egyptian graphic novel anthology that collects shorter comics in the same book. We chose it for specific reasons. First, it is an endogenous product. Not only does it “talk” about Egypt, but it is also created by Egyptians. Second, Tok Tok’s first volume was published during the Egyptian revolution (January 2011), so it can be understood as a sort of diary on the Egyptian political revolution and its subsequent developments. Third, it does present short stories that are easy to read in the classroom and that do not require much effort from students. We chose two concrete comics: “The battle of the packages” (on the role of the army in the revolution of January 25, 2011, and its relationship with the protesters) and “Sharia Japanese style” (on the application of the sharia and the secular Islamist division in Egypt; it is also a parody of those who want to apply the sharia). Although we considered including other comics or graphic novels, we finally decided to integrate only these Tok Tok comic strips. On the one hand, Egypt is a central country not only in the region but also in terms of the developments of the so-called Arab Spring. Although it is a geographically North African country, it geopolitically integrates the two sub-MENA areas, Southwest Asia and North Africa. Additionally, we did not want to overload the students with many readings. Rather, we preferred to give them enough time to carefully read the proposed material (15 pages in total). As argued by Gibert, “[w]hat students are rarely aware of, and what […] we need to teach them, is that it takes some effort, and solid research and analytical skills, to make sense of popular culture material and draw political meaning from it. Rather than simply warning students against nonacademic sources, it may be more realistic and useful to invite them to think about how to best read and use them” (‍2016: 3).

To summarize, the activity unfolds as follows. The first part of the 3-hour seminar is where professors have a more active role. Drawing on social movements’ theory, we explain the most relevant aspects of the so-called Arab Spring. We introduce classical concepts such as “political opportunity”, “social alliances” and “regime’s survival strategies”. We also explain the role of international actors and international influences and how these can be theoretically analyzed. In the second part, we present the two comics, explain their relevance and introduce the proposed activity. We give some time for students to form groups and discuss the formulated questions. Finally, the different groups present their main conclusions. While projecting the comics for the whole classroom, we reread it all together, highlighting their main conclusions and some other aspects not mentioned.

Multicausal explanations [Up]

While in the first questionnaire students showed a complete lack of knowledge of the region, many later said that religious or cultural factors were relevant to explain the region. When asked to evaluate on a scale their agreement with the affirmation “[i]n order to explain the region, religious factors are more important than other factors”, 9 of 14 (9/14) students responded with “agree” and 3/14 with “strongly agree”. The same trend can be identified regarding cultural factors. Half of the students “agree” and 6/14 “strongly agree” with the sentence “[i]n order to explain the region, cultural factors are more important than other factors”. On the other hand, the trend is not so marked when referring to political and social factors. Six students “strongly agree” and five “agree” with the affirmation “[i]n order to explain the region, political factors are more important than other factors”. Seven students “strongly agree” and four “agree” with the affirmation “[i]n order to explain the region, social factors are more important than other factors”.

Although after the session explanations linked to religion and culture do not completely disappear, they become less prevalent. Before the activity, no student indicated any value below “agree slightly” when referred to the affirmation(s) “[i]n order to explain the region, religious/cultural factors are more important than other factors”. When asked to reply to the same question after the session, some students “strongly” or “moderately” disagree with the same affirmation. Although some preconceptions persist, we can speak of a changing trend.

The results are consistent with the content of the comic and with the professor’s short lecture. Although the comic deals to a certain extent with issues related to Islam, it does so from a satiric point of view and presents religion as a factor of divergence rather than as a factor of homogenization. Also, social movement theory tends to highlight the role of actors, context, action, ideology, and mobilization rather than religion itself as a main explanatory element.

How useful was the comic? [Up]

Students’ feedback on the second part of the questionnaire, referred to as subjective opinions about their own learning process, was also positive. When asked to evaluate in a scale their agreement with the affirmation “[t]he comic has helped me to see problems from a different point of view”, three of them “strongly agree”, four “moderately agree” and six “slightly agree”. These results are consistent with the insights of the qualitative discussion carried out at the end of the session. One student stated that: “I had never thought about the protests from this perspective, about how young people like us live there” (Male student, 20 years old). Another said: “Everything seemed very different to me. I had never seen it from the point of view of those who participate in the protests” (Female student, 21 years old).

These statements are consistent with the data obtained by the questionnaire. When asked to evaluate their agreement with the affirmation “I have nothing to do with the youth of the region”, four students, “strongly disagree”, two “moderately disagree”, and six “slightly disagree”. This sense of empathy is also highlighted during the final discussion in the classroom. One student said: “One realizes that we are very much like them. I hadn’t thought of it like that before” (Male, 21 years old).

Ultimately, students responded positively to the challenge of subjectivity. When asked to evaluate on a scale their agreement with the affirmation “[t]he comic allowed me to better understand the subjectivity inherent to every narrative”, six “strongly agree”, two “moderately disagree”, and two “slightly disagree”.

During post-activity class discussions, students tended to emphasize how relevant the comic was to better understand the actors working within the Arab region. According to some of them, the comic was key to see what Egyptian youth thought, felt and did. When explaining this (intended) result, students were not referring to the previous lecture, although some of the were using theoretical concepts introduced by the professor.

Class discussion and other issues [Up]

Questions related to narratives and subjectivities were at the center of the debriefing session. In general, students agreed with the fact that narratives are always subjective and “situated”. As explained by one student: “I had never realized that the Truth does not exist. I mean, it does exist, but the story is always told from a particular perspective” (Female student, 23 years old). Another stated: “They always tell us the story according to Western criteria, but they are not the only criteria” (Male student, 23 years old).

Beyond questions related to identity, subjectivity, and narratives, other relevant issues emerged during the last discussion. Some students realized that some of the girls portrayed in the comics were not wearing a veil. Indeed, the main character of one of the comics has long black hair. The question of the Muslim headscarf lies at the core of the Orientalist approach. The representation of characters, especially women, is a “key form of Orientalism because the ‘Oriental’ is created as a contrast to the West” (‍Tomé-Alonso and Ferreiro Prado, 2020). Women wearing hijabs are often portrayed as “submissive” to male figures. Sometimes this image is generalized to every woman living in a Muslim majority country.

It was not our intention to delve into the debate on the veil and its possible (many) meanings but to highlight the plurality of female prototypes in the region. In this sense, the feedback was positive. As explained by one student, “I have realized that not all women wear a headscarf and also that women do things” (Female student, 22 years old).

Finally, one of the issues that captured the students’ attention was the question of regime repression. According to their own explanations, students imagined that repression was total (rather than selective) and that there was no space for any form of coaptation, liberalization or renegotiation of spaces. When thinking about the region, students (did) tend to highlight the authoritarian, and violent “nature” of local regimes. They did follow an Orientalist argument which does not only emphasizes an Oriental/Arab “despotic” political authority, but which also stablish a North-South division. This is not a minor question. As stated by Shapiro, “violent cartographies are thus constituted as an articulation of geographic imaginaries and antagonisms, based on models of identity–difference” (‍2009: 18). Since the Treaty of Westphalia (1648), a point at which the horizontal, geopolitical world of nation-states emerged as a more salient geographic imaginary than the theologically oriented vertical world (which was imaginatively structured as a separation between divine and secular space), maps of enmity have been framed by differences in geopolitical location, and (with notable exceptions) state leaders have supplanted religious authorities. Moreover, geopolitical location has since been a more significant identity marker than spiritual commitment” (id.). After the activity, students realized that spaces and authorities have nuances that deserve to be exposed.